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Postman Pat
Postman Pat, later known as Postman Pat: Special Delivery Service was a stop motion-animated children's television series. About Postman Pat revolves around the adventures of the local postman Pat Clifton in the village of Greendale as drives around on his post rounds. Later in the series he is promoted to the Special Delivery Serive in the neighbouring seaside town of Pencaster and delivers very special packages in a how range of different vehicles. The creator John Cunliffe died in 2018. History Postman Pat first came about when the BBC were thinking up an idea for a new pre-school children's series set in the countryside. John Cunliffe who was a teacher at Castle Park School in Kendal was told about the project by the parent of one of his students who suggested that he should send some of the stories that he had been writing for children to the project leader as they were looking for writers. Later on, John met up with Cynthia Felgate in London who asked him to be the writer for project. John then suggested that the leading character could be the local postman, which Cynthia liked straight away. So John Cunliffe went back home to start working on writing about the adventures of the locally known postman and history was made. John Cunliffe has stated that Pat is based on the postmen of Kendal; there was small post office at the end of John's street and he became a close friend of the post office shop keeper, who told him the daily work that country postmen do, which later helped to form Postman Pat's character. From 1980's-1990's the series was animated by Woodland Studios which iconically known for animating other television shows like "The Wombles" and "Paddington". In the first series, all the voices were done by Ken Barrie. After the educational special Postman Pat's 123, Carole Boyd joined the team to mainly play the child and adult female characters while Ken contiuned to play Granny Dryden and the male adults. Since 2003, the series was animated by Cosgrove Hall which is know for the creation of shows like "Dangermouse", "The Wind in the Willows" and "Noddy's Toyland Adventures". At this point the narrator was dropped and a full voice cast was introduced. New voice overs stepped in to play new characters and to take over the roles of the child characters from Carol Boyd. This new series also saw the start of a full writing team, in contrast to all the episodes being written by John Cunliffe. Since 2008, Pat moved into a new frontier known as "Postman Pat: Special Delivery Service" when he delivers very unusual parcel sent into the sorting office in Pencaster in a selection of different vehicles other than just his normal Royal Mail van. At this point, while Ken Barrie still voiced most of the same characters he had voiced in the past, Lewis MacLeod who voiced the shows newst character Ben Taylor also took over the role of Pat. In the next season of 2013, Ken Barrie left the cast all together; Lew MacLeod and new cast members, Bradley Clarkson and Dan Milne took over his roles. In 2009, Pat's cat Jess got his own spin-off series aimed at pre-schoolers, Guess with Jess. In this same year Specsavers Optical Group Ltd. used Postman Pat in one of its TV advertisments, featuring the current voice cast at the time. Pat and various other characters from the series also appeared in Peter Kay's Animated All Star Band for Children in Need. In 2011, as the Postman Pat celebrated its 30th birthday, the BBC announced that the famous postman was to be coming to motion picture screen. Postman Pat the Movie was finally released in 2014. In 2013, the television series moved into a new animation studio. Mackinnnon and Saunders Ltd. which animated shows like "Pingu", "Rastamouse" and "Toby's Traveling Circus" and the films "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and Tim Burton's "Corpse Bride" also took over the filming process of "Postman Pat: Special Delivery Service". The company had also only been previously responsible for manufacturing the puppets from Season 3 onwards. On Monday 29th February, 2016, Postman Pat will also start being shown on Tiny Pop. Seasons ◾Season 1 (1981) ◾Season 2 (subtitled Postman Pat and his Black and White Cat) (1996) ◾Season 3 (2004) ◾Season 4 (2005) ◾Season 5 (2006) ◾Season 6 (subtitled Postman Pat: Special Delivery Service) (2008) ◾Season 7 (subtitled Postman Pat: Special Delivery Service) (2013) * Season 8 (subtitled Postman Pat: Special Delivery Service) (2016) Pat as seen in Postman Pat the Movie. Specials and Movies ◾Postman Pat's ABC (1990) ◾Postman Pat's 123 (1990) ◾Postman Pat takes the Bus (1991) ◾Postman Pat and the Toy Soldiers (1992) ◾Postman Pat and the Tuba (1994) ◾Postman Pat and the Barometer (1994) ◾Read Along with Postman Pat (1994) ◾Postman Pat and the Greendale Rocket (2003) ◾Postman Pat's Magical Christmas (2003) ◾Postman Pat Clowns Around (2004) ◾Postman Pat's Pirate Treasure (2004) ◾Postman Pat's Great Big Birthday (2005) ◾Postman Pat the Movie (2014) Trivia ◾In 2005, the series ranked 23rd in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Kid's TV Shows vote. ◾In the Radio Times' poll for the most favourited children's programme at the BBC in 2014, the series won the most votes for the best programme of the 1980's. It was also voted the second most popular show in the all time top 3 of the same poll, just below "Shaun the Sheep", the winner of the 2000's category. Category:Television Shows Category:1996s TV Shows Category:1981s TV Shows Category:1990s TV shows